WO2017014541A1 - Bedside nursing robot - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a nursing robot capable of performing nursing work for a patient, instead of nursing personnel and, more particularly, to a nursing robot which: detects state information of an object existing on a bed; searches for an appropriate caring action according to the detected state information; and performs the caring action by driving various devices provided therein. The utilization of the nursing robot according to the present invention has advantages in that the conventional problem of difficulty in continuous nursing of a patient can be solved, labor costs required for patient nursing can be reduced, and further the condition of a patient can be objectively detected and cumulatively monitored, which can contribute to efficient patient care.

Description

Bed-side Nursing Robot

The present invention relates to a nursing robot that can perform a nursing task for a patient instead of a nursing personnel. The present invention relates to a nursing robot that performs a caring action by driving various devices.

The use of this nursing robot can solve the problem that conventional nursing was not easy for conventional patients, and at the same time, it can reduce the labor cost required for patient nursing, and objectively grasp the patient's condition and accumulate the patient's condition. Enabling monitoring has the effect of enabling efficient patient care.

In line with the current trends such as the proliferation of social aging and the growing interest in the health of the general public, the medical market has recently been in great demand. Accordingly, the demand for nursing manpower for managing and nursing patients is also increasing rapidly.

However, compared to the increase in demand for nursing personnel, the amount of nursing personnel supplied to the actual market is not enough, and there is a case where a limited number of nursing personnel manages a large number of patients.

On the other hand, when looking specifically at the work that the nursing staff performs when nursing a single patient, most of the tasks are simple repetitive nursing tasks that can be performed within 10 minutes. It is figured out. In this regard, the problem of the shortage of nursing staff in modern society can be solved if the simple repetitive nursing task is transferred to other personnel with relatively low cost or transferred to an automated nursing / care system.

The present invention proposes a nursing robot capable of performing a simple repetitive nursing task among nursing tasks in view of the problems of the modern society.

In recent years, pet robots and intelligent robots have been developed to be linked to human daily life. For these robots, they can simulate animals or express more natural behaviors based on anthropomorphic emotions. Constant research is being done for this purpose.

On the other hand, Korean Patent Publication No. 2012-0103899 as a related prior art. The prior art relates to a nursing assistance system and method, and to a system and method for assisting a nurse's work in a hospital or rehabilitation center to automatically assist the nurse's work, such as drug delivery and vital sign measurement to patients in each room. It is about. However, the above-mentioned prior art mainly discloses only the contents of carrying out nursing work while driving in a space, and is continuously installed on a bed of a patient who is inconvenient to move, and continuously records and records status information about the patient. It is not disclosed about regular nursing care.

The present invention intends to utilize the robot that is being continuously researched so far in the field of patient care, and the present invention can be used in a comprehensive nursing service system that provides nursing and nursing services, and corrects patient safety and The aim is to provide a nursing robot that supports caregivers and nursing caregivers, and supports simple and repetitive nurse work.

In order to solve the above problems of the present invention, an object of the present invention is to reduce the burden on nursing work of nursing personnel by having a nursing robot perform a simple nursing job.

In addition, an object of the present invention is to arrange a nursing robot driven by an automated system near a patient's bedside so that the patient can be monitored at all times, and thus the patient's condition can be grasped without a gap.

The present invention also aims to enable effective nursing and healing by monitoring a patient's condition as well as performing an appropriate care action in accordance with the patient's current condition.

In particular, the present invention, in providing a care action (caring action) to the patient to understand the physical state as well as the emotional state of the patient to provide a nursing / nursing service similar to that nursing personnel care directly It is done.

In addition, the present invention provides a more inexpensive nursing robot, thereby constantly monitoring patients with inconvenient behavior at low cost, not only in tertiary hospitals such as upper general hospitals, but also in smaller secondary hospitals and primary hospitals, and even general homes. It aims to provide an environment where nursing care can be done immediately.

According to the above-mentioned problem solving means, the present invention has the effect that can solve the problems caused by the lack of skilled nursing personnel. In other words, by reducing the work burden per nursing personnel can be performed more effective nursing work, there is an effect that can receive a high-quality nursing service as a patient.

In addition, according to the present invention, the patient can install a nursing professional robot that includes the knowledge of professional nursing relatively easily, so that there is no need to set up a caregiver who requires a small amount of cost, and thus, a larger number of patients have better quality nursing care. There is an effect of being able to receive services.

In addition, according to the present invention, since the nursing robot grasps the condition of the patient in real time and provides an appropriate caring action, there is an effect that the patient and the caregiver can live their life in peace.

In addition, according to the present invention, since the nursing robot determines the condition of the patient based on an objective criterion, there is an effect of providing a more accurate nursing service.

In addition, according to the present invention, since the nursing robot can request help by attempting communication with a professional nursing staff if necessary, there is an effect that can minimize the risk of using only the nursing robot.

1 shows a state in which the nursing robot according to the present invention is provided on the bed of the patient.

Figure 2 shows the actual implementation and each detailed configuration of the nursing robot according to the present invention.

3 is a block diagram showing the detailed configuration of the nursing robot according to the present invention.

Figure 4 shows the process of obtaining the posture information of the subject by the nursing robot according to the present invention.

Figure 5 shows in order the driving method of the nursing robot according to the present invention.

Details of the object and technical configuration of the present invention and the resulting effects will be more clearly understood by the following detailed description based on the accompanying drawings. With reference to the accompanying drawings will be described in detail an embodiment according to the present invention.

The embodiments disclosed herein should not be interpreted or used as limiting the scope of the invention. It is obvious to those skilled in the art that the description, including the embodiments herein, has a variety of applications. Accordingly, certain embodiments described in the detailed description of the present invention are illustrative for better understanding of the present invention and are not intended to limit the scope of the present invention to the embodiments.

The functional blocks shown in the figures and described below are only examples of possible implementations. Other functional blocks may be used in other implementations without departing from the spirit and scope of the detailed description. Also, while one or more functional blocks of the present invention are represented by separate blocks, one or more of the functional blocks of the present invention may be a combination of various hardware and software configurations that perform the same function.

In addition, the expression of including certain components merely refers to the presence of the components as an open expression, and should not be understood as excluding additional components.

Further, when a component is referred to as being connected or connected to another component, it should be understood that there may be a direct connection or connection to that other component, but there may be other components in between.

1 shows an example of practical use of the nursing robot 100 according to the present invention.

As can be seen in Figure 1, the present invention can be used in the patient's couch (1000), the state information acquisition unit 110, the determination unit 130, provided in the nursing robot 100 without the help of nursing personnel The control unit 150, the expression unit and the like to provide monitoring and nursing work for the patient.

In particular, in caring for the patients who can not control the body in the bed, these patients will need to provide constant monitoring and nursing services, the nursing robot 100 according to the present invention is fixed to the bed 1000 to install In this case, sufficient care can be provided to the patient.

Meanwhile, referring to FIG. 1, the nursing robot 100 according to the present invention may be fixed to the couch 1000, preferably, to the rigid structure or member of the couch 1000. As such, when manufacturing and supplying the nursing robot 100 in a form that can be fixed to the bed 1000, the nursing robot 100 can be produced at a relatively low cost, and thus, more patients and their families have fewer burdens. The nursing robot 100 can be used.

Hereinafter, a detailed configuration of the nursing robot 100 according to the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. 2.

According to FIG. 2, the nursing robot 100 includes a state information acquisition unit 110, a determination unit 130, and a controller 150, and further includes a log unit 170 and a database 190. can do.

The status information acquisition unit 110 is a generic term for means for obtaining status information of a monitoring target, and means a function unit that obtains various information about an object existing on the couch 1000.

The state information acquisition unit 110 may be implemented by various means in order to obtain various types of information. For example, the state information may be sound information and image information, and the state information acquisition unit 110 may be Each may be a microphone device for obtaining sound information or a photographing device for obtaining image information.

On the other hand, the sound information that can be collected by the state information acquisition unit 110 may include the voice of the object, that is, the patient, and may further comprehensively include ambient sounds other than the voice from the patient.

Voice refers to a voice or sound that is intended or unintentionally made by a person. Here, a voice intended by a person means a voice command that the patient intends to directly transmit to the nursing robot 100 that the patient directly sees. Unintentional voice may include various voices unintentionally made by a patient, for example, a moan caused by extreme pain, or a sound caused by a sudden abrupt situation.

On the other hand, the state information acquisition unit 110 may collect not only the voice originating from the patient but also the sound around the patient as sound information. The ambient sound is, for example, the sound of another person approaching the patient, and the patient sleeps on the bed (1000). ) When falling from the floor, the sound falling on the bed 1000, the sound of the equipment around the falling down may include all sounds that can be inferred whether the patient's body or abnormalities occur.

On the other hand, the image information collected by the state information acquisition unit 110 may include facial expression information of the patient, posture information of the patient.

The state information acquiring unit 110 for acquiring image information may be implemented as a photographing apparatus, and a method of photographing a patient's face in close-up, a method of photographing a posture in which the patient is present on the couch 1000, and the like. Can collect image information.

As such, the state information acquisition unit 110 according to the present invention acquires sound information and image information as basic data for identifying the current state of the object.

The function of the state information acquisition unit 110 as described above allows the patient to freely control the nursing robot by using a non-contact voice, a gesture, or the like. As the patient lying on the bed, his or her voice command, posture or hand gesture, etc. A desired command can be easily given by a gesture or the like.

Next, the determination unit 130 determines i) the current state of the object by using the state information previously obtained by the state information acquisition unit 110, and ii) a care action corresponding to the determined current state. ), And iii) transmitting a control command to the controller 150 to execute the found caring action.

First, with respect to i), the determination unit 130 determines whether the current state of the subject, that is, the patient's state, needs to take special measures based on the state information acquired by the state information acquisition unit 110. It is estimated by calculation.

This process may be performed in a manner in which the determination unit 130 determines the current state of the object by comparing the previously obtained state information with reference information stored in the database 190. For example, when sound information is obtained, the determination unit 130 searches the first database to find whether there is reference information having a pattern similar to the acquired sound information, and if the reference information of the similar pattern is found, If present, the current state corresponding to the reference information is extracted.

More specifically, when a voice command “Please call a nurse” is received from the patient, the determination unit 130 inquires of the first database whether reference information identical or similar to the voice command of the patient exists. The current state corresponding to the reference information, that is, 'calling a nurse call', can be extracted to determine the current state of the patient.

The patient current state determination process of the determination unit 130 may be equally applied when the acquired state information is image information. For example, when the state information is posture information of the patient, the determination unit 130 may include the posture information, Inquiring whether there is reference information matching the posture image through the first database, and as a result, when the posture reference information having a similar pattern exists, the current state of the patient corresponding to the reference information may be determined.

More specifically, when the posture information and the posture image of the patient are lying down, the determination unit 130 inquires the reference information of the patient's lying state through the first database, and finally the patient state is' You'll find yourself lying down.

Meanwhile, in relation to the posture information of the patient, FIG. 4 illustrates an example in which the posture image of the patient taken by the state information acquisition unit 110 is converted into a skeleton line image and used as posture information.

According to FIG. 4, the state information acquisition unit 110 photographs the position of the patient lying on the couch 1000 as it is, and the determination unit 130 extracts the skeleton line of the patient from the captured image. You can extract and extract only the main lines, that is, the major lines, to derive a pattern.

Skeleton lines refer to the patient's position in which the neck, arms and legs are placed, and the length of the upper part of the body, extracted from the image and displayed in a simple line form. In the case of expressing a simple skeleton line, there is an advantage in that the posture can be clearly distinguished, and in addition, when the subsequent process is performed by extracting only the pattern of the major line from the skeleton line, the burden on the workload of the determination unit 130 is reduced. It has the effect of saving resources.

On the other hand, the patient's current state determination process of the determination unit 130 proceeds similarly to the posture information even when the acquired state information is facial expression information, for example, the determination unit 130 is the facial expression information, facial expression Inquiring whether there is reference information matching the image through the first database, and as a result, if there is a posture reference information of a similar pattern, it is possible to determine the current state of the patient corresponding to the reference information.

More specifically, when the facial expression information and facial expression image of the patient is obtained, after determining a plurality of feature points on the expression image, the determination unit 130 obtains a pattern of the feature points, and obtains the pattern and The reference information stored in the 1 database, that is, reference information corresponding to various facial expression patterns, can be queried to finally determine whether the patient's state is emotionally, ie, a depressed state or a good state.

On the other hand, the determination unit 130 may also perform a function of previously grasping the intention of the movement or action of the patient based on the current state of the patient. For example, when the patient continues to attempt to get up on the bed, the determination unit 130 understands the patient's wake up intention based on the current state and takes a care action such as a nurse call. Done.

Next, in relation to ii), the determination unit 130 queries the second database to determine what action, that is, a caring action, based on the previously determined patient's current state. In this case, care actions corresponding to the current state of the patient may be matched and stored in the second database.

For example, in the above embodiment, when the patient confirms that the patient is in the 'calling nurse' state, the determination unit 130 searches the second database and matches a care action, that is, the 'nurse terminal'. Will attempt to invoke '.

In addition, when the patient is in the 'down state', the determination unit 130 counts how long the down state lasted in units of seconds or minutes, and when the preset time is exceeded, the care action stored in the second database (caring) action), i.e., caring actions such as 'notify the patient' or 'notify the guardian'.

Next, in relation to iii), when the care action to be taken with respect to the patient is detected, the determination unit 130 generates a control command for actually executing the control command and transmits the control command to the control unit 150. do.

The control unit 150 receives a control command from the determination unit 130 and controls various expression units provided in the nursing robot 100 according to the control command. In this case, the expression units include a communication device and a monitor. 300, an alarm device, an alarm device or a speaker may be included.

That is, the controller 150 is a function unit that controls various expression units in order to finally execute a care action on a patient.

In addition, the control command generated and transmitted by the determination unit 130 is preferably in the form of data that can be processed by a general computing device.

As described above, the determination unit 130 basically performs three functions. In particular, the determination unit 130 executes a care action in conjunction with the control unit 150 as a main function.

On the other hand, the nursing robot 100 according to the present invention may further include a log unit 170 in addition to the basic configuration.

The log unit 170 functions to cumulatively record the state information of the object acquired by the state information acquisition unit 110 according to time, which accumulates the history of the state of the patient in patient care. In order to refer to future nursing or treatment.

In addition, the log unit 170 may additionally record in addition to the patient's status information, what care action was taken according to each status information.

On the other hand, the nursing robot according to the present invention can provide a wide variety of services by having the detailed configuration described above.

For example, the nursing robot can grasp the current state of the patient, that is, whether the patient is depressed, happy, or painful, and thus expresses content that can provide emotional stability (monitor, sound, etc.). It can be provided through the effect of being able to communicate with the patient emotionally.

Furthermore, the nursing robot can monitor all of the patient's life patterns to check the patient's rest and sleep time, wake up time, etc., and assist the patient's life by notifying the patient at each schedule.

On the other hand, the nursing robot not only cares for the patient directly, but also provides an environment in which remote care is possible through a communication connection with a caregiver. For example, the nursing robot may connect a video call with a caregiver to help the caregiver communicate with the patient through a monitor.

In addition, the nursing robot may store the patient's condition cumulatively by separately storing the log unit as described above, for example, to prevent side effects, bedsores, etc., caused by the patient lying on the bed for a long time. There is an effect that allows the patient or guardian to analyze or adjust the posture, for example, to notify the posture to be changed in advance.

The detailed configuration of the nursing robot 100 according to the present invention has been described above with reference to FIG. 2.

Hereinafter, an exemplary embodiment of the nursing robot 100 according to the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. 3.

Figure 3 (a) is a perspective view of the nursing robot 100, (b) shows a side view.

Referring to the embodiment of FIG. 3, the nursing robot 100 may include the state information acquisition unit 110, the determination unit 130, and the controller 150 in an integrated terminal form. In addition, the monitor 300 for outputting the screen to the patient may also be provided in combination with the terminal in which the function unit is implemented.

3 is merely an example, it should be understood that each functional unit may be implemented as a separate entity or a combination of any functional unit.

Meanwhile, referring to FIG. 3, the nursing robot 100 according to the present invention includes a fixing part 700 for fixing the nursing robot 100 to a bed 1000, and a monitor 300 to a patient in the bed 1000. It can be seen that an arm 400 for approaching the arm may be provided.

Fixing part 700 is for fixing the nursing robot 100 to the bed 1000, which is arranged in parallel with the two members of the height adjustable up and down, the bed 1000 in the space above and below the member By nurturing a part of the nursing robot 100 can be fixed.

On the other hand, the fixing part 700 may be implemented in various shapes in addition to the embodiment shown in Figure 3, it should be understood that comprehensively interpreted as a means for fixing the nursing robot 100 to the bed 1000. will be.

In addition, the nursing robot 100 according to the present invention may further include an arm 400 for facilitating access to the patient. According to FIG. 3, the nursing robot 100 may include an articulation part 500 having a degree of freedom to drive an arm 400. In this case, the arm 400 is an arm of the controller 150. It can be driven by the control of. At this time, the joint part 500 may be moved with freedom in space using a DC motor, through which the monitor 300 mounted on one end of the arm 400 is appropriately distanced from the patient. You can also keep it. In this case, the controller 150 may determine how far the distance between the current patient and the monitor 300 is by using a photographing apparatus such as a camera provided as one type of the status information acquisition unit 110. Depending on the distance, the arm 400, more precisely, the joint 500 may be driven to allow the monitor 300 to maintain a proper distance from the patient.

Hereinafter, a driving method of the nursing robot 100 according to the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. 5.

According to this, the driving method of the nursing robot 100 starts with acquiring the state information of the object first (S510). The state information may include sound information, image information, and the like, and more specifically, may include a voice command of the patient, sounds around the patient couch 1000, facial expression information of the patient, and posture information of the patient. Such state information may be collected by the state information acquisition unit 110 provided in the nursing robot 100, for example, a microphone and a camera.

After step S510, the nursing robot 100 determines the current state of the object based on the collected state information (S520). At this time, the nursing robot 100 infers the current state of the object by referring to the reference information stored in the database 190.

After the current state of the patient is determined, the nursing robot 100 searches for a caring action corresponding to the current state (S530). In the database, a care action matching a current state of the patient is stored, and the nursing robot 100 refers to this to determine what action should be taken according to the current state of the patient.

Finally, the nursing robot 100 controls the presenting units to move the care action to actual execution. In this case, the expression units may include a monitor 300, a speaker, a communication device, an alarm device, an alarm device, and the like.

While preferred embodiments and applications of the present invention have been illustrated and described above, the present invention is not limited to the specific embodiments and applications described above, and the present invention may be made without departing from the spirit of the invention as claimed in the claims. Various modifications can be made by those skilled in the art, and these modifications should not be distinguished from the technical spirit or the scope of the present invention.

[Description of the code]

100 nursing robot

110 Status Information Acquisition Unit

130 judgment

150 controls

170 log

190 databases

300 monitor

400 cancer

500 joints

700 fixing

1000 couch

Claims (14)

A state information obtaining unit obtaining state information of an object present on the bed; A control command for determining a current state of the target by using the state information, searching for a caring action corresponding to the determined current state, and executing a found caring action Determination unit to pass to; And A control unit which receives a control command from the determination unit and controls the expression unit according to the control command; Nursing robot comprising a. The method of claim 1, A fixing part for fixing the nursing robot on the bed; Nursing robot comprising more. The method of claim 2, The presentation unit is a monitor, The control unit, the nursing robot, characterized in that for outputting the screen to the monitor according to the control command received from the determination unit. The method of claim 3, One end extending and coupled to the fixed portion, the other end is coupled to the monitor, the nursing robot further comprises an arm (arm) capable of movement in space, including one or more joints having a degree of freedom. The method of claim 2, The presentation unit is a calling device, And the control unit drives the call device according to a control command received from the determination unit. The method of claim 1, The state information acquisition unit, Nursing robot, characterized in that to obtain the sound information, facial expression information or posture information of the target. The method of claim 6, A log unit which accumulatively records state information of an object obtained by the state information acquisition unit; Nursing robot comprising more. The method of claim 7, wherein And the log unit further records a care action searched by the determination unit. The method of claim 6, The state information acquisition unit obtains the sound information of the target, And the determination unit determines a current state corresponding to the sound information by querying a first database, and searches for a care action corresponding to the current state by querying a second database. The method of claim 9, The sound information is nursing robot, characterized in that it comprises a voice or sound. The method of claim 6, The state information acquisition unit obtains facial expression information of the target, And the determination unit determines a current state corresponding to the facial expression information by querying a first database, and searches for a care action corresponding to the current state by querying a second database. The method of claim 11, The facial expression information is a face image of the subject, And the determination unit sets a plurality of feature points on the face image, obtains a pattern of the feature points, and queries a first database based on the acquired pattern to determine a corresponding current state. The method of claim 6, The state information acquisition unit obtains the attitude information of the target, And the determination unit searches a first database to determine a current state corresponding to the posture information, and searches a second database to search for a caring action corresponding to the current state. The method of claim 13, The posture information is a skeleton line image of the target, And the determination unit obtains a pattern of major lines in the skeleton line image, and determines a corresponding current state by querying a first database based on the obtained pattern.

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